Key events
44 mins: We close on half-time with a familiar pattern now in place – Chelsea probing in the Liverpool half, the hosts happy to wait and pounce on a mistake.
42 mins: Chelsea have plenty of attacking options on the bench – Nkunku, Neto, João Félix – although Jackson is OK to continue for now.
40 mins: Jackson has gone down off the ball, holding his hip. He’s had a busy international break, playing twice for Senegal in Afcon qualifying. It looks like he might have hurt himself after falling while taking that shot on a few minutes ago.
39 mins: Caicedo is robbed by Nunez, who feeds Salah on the right. His ball in to Gakpo’s feet puts him one-on-one with Adariaboyo, but the Chelsea defender stands his ground well this time.
38 mins: Palmer misjudges a pass on the edge of the Liverpool area; he’s not had the best of games so far. Chelsea come again, and the tricky Sancho is denied by Alexander-Arnold, at the expense of a corner.
36 mins: Gakpo plays a lovely pass in to Szoboszlai, who mishits a decent chance into Sanchez’s gloves, causing Peter Drury to shout DOMINIK Szoboszlai at an entirely unnecessary volume.
“I just made the mistake of checking the darker parts of the internet, where everything is binary and there are no shades of grey, and there are Arsenal supporters claiming that Adarabioyo’s yellow and Saliba’s red are definite proof there’s a PGMOL conspiracy against them,” writes Andy Flintoff (not that one).
I’ve never really understood how these refereeing conspiracies are supposed to work. If you have ever had a decision go your way, surely that debunks the whole theory?
34 mins: Chelsea break through Caicedo, who plays a raking diagonal ball to Jackson. His shot from a tight angle is decent, perhaps clipping the very outside of the post – but Maresca is unhappy he didn’t look up and see Palmer arriving in the middle.
No goal! They almost pay for their fuzzy thinking here, with Sanchez’s weak clearance setting up another Liverpool attack. Nunez flicks on to Jones, who plays in Salah, whose low cross is turned in by Gakpo. Lovely stuff … but the flag is up, Salah just offside in the buildup.
31 mins: Sanchez is off his line quickly to clear from under Nunez’s feet, before Salah wins a corner. Chelsea just need to clear their heads here …
30 mins: Jackson is booked for protesting the decision while Salah waited to take the penalty. There’s also an early change for Liverpool, with Diogo Jota – moving gingerly ever since that Tosin challenge – being replaced by Darwin Núñez.
GOAL! Liverpool 1-0 Chelsea (Salah pen 29′)
Sanchez dives to his right, Salah smashes the ball into the other corner, and Liverpool lead!
Penalty to Liverpool!
Moments later, Salah’s blocked shot rebounds into Curtis Jones’ path – and as he turns to shoot, he’s brought down by Colwill. That’s a penalty, right there. And now Salah will step up …
25 mins: Liverpool go again, Colwill appearing to foul Salah outside the area, and there’s another challenge in the area, but John Brooks waves the appeals away. Arne Slot is so hoppin’ mad he gets a booking, but you might argue Salah leaned into that second challenge. But wait …
24 mins: Chelsea break and Madueke’s cut-back deflects to Cole Palmer, whose quick shot is blocked. You almost expect him to score from that kind of position …
23 mins: At the other end, James gets into trouble and is prised off the ball by Gakpo. Jota has a run at the last man, but the referee gives a foul. James was a little lucky there …
21 mins: Another tricky deep cross from Reece James is headed behind by Alexander-Arnold; from the corner, Kelleher has to clear under pressure from Jackson, but then the offside flag is raised against Colwill.
20 mins: The first murmurs of frustration from the home fans as a pass goes astray in the centre circle. Liverpool fans are also urging their team to push forward – everyone is behind the ball with Chelsea in possession.
19 mins: Maresca appeals after Alexander-Arnold brings down Sancho in the area after a tangle of legs, but no further action is taken.
18 mins: Sanchez almost gifts Liverpool the lead, trying to be too clever and clattering the ball off Gakpo. Luckily for Chelsea, it ricochets back into this gloves.
16 mins: Enzo Maresca has won his first three away Premier League games, and his team have had the better of a fairly low-key opening, bar the Tosin yellow card.
13 mins: Chelsea move the ball smoothly through midfield again, and Sancho plays in Gusto, whose cross is deflected behind – but he got the last touch, so it’s a Liverpool goal kick.
11 mins: A nice Sanchez-Sancho link here as the Chelsea keeper plays a perfect long pass out wide. The winger advances and pulls it back to Gusto, who overcooks his attempted cross.
9 mins: A lull in the game, during which we get a close-up of Kelleher, making his 50th Liverpool appearance and untroubled thus far.
7 mins: Adarabioyo is booked! Probably a fair decision – Jota would have had more to do than Evanilson yesterday, with the ball heading towards the touchline and Gusto in pursuit. Tosin is on the proverbial tightrope now, though.
6 mins: Uh-oh … Salah launches a long ball and Jota is away, in behind Tosin Adarabioyo, who is caught on the wrong side and bundles him over. It’s a very similar incident to the William Saliba red card last night …
5 mins: Caicedo stays down briefly holding his knee, but is OK to carry on for now. Diogo Jota almost breaks through the Chelsea defence, but just lets the ball out from under his feet.
4 mins: After a wriggling run from Jones, Salah’s long-range effort comes off Colwill’s hand – nothing given, although Colwill was actually outside the area.
2 mins: We’ve started at a gentle pace, with Reece James’ curling cross headed away by Konate in the first attacking foray from either team.
Kick off
Here we go, Liverpool in all-red, Chelsea in almost all-blue (white socks). It’s a classic combination.
First, a minute’s applause for Peter Cormack, a star midfielder for Bill Shankly’s Liverpool side, who died recently at the age of 78. Here is one of Cormack’s most famous goals, a diving header to win the Merseyside derby in 1972. RIP.
“You’ll Never Walk Alone” echoes around Anfield. How about Chris McCausland on Strictly, eh? Anyway, kick-off is coming up …
“This should be a highly entertaining fixture,” writes Mary Waltz. “On VAR. Bin it. Has it reduced the amount of controversy? No. Accept human frailty and go back to human decisions.” I don’t think there’s any chance VAR will be binned; it still feels to me that in England, it’s the way officials use the system that is largely to blame.
And Arne Slot: “It’s always the next game, it’s a tough one as Chelsea are doing well this season. It’s no surprise to me, they have a lot of very good players, so an interesting challenge.”
Here’s Enzo Maresca: “Reece was injured, now he’s back, hopefully he can get minutes and get a bit more fit. I know Romeo very well from City, it’s similar, he just needs games [but] he’s back to help us.”
“Today’s game won’t define where we are, if we win or not. We try to prepare in the best way, get points, and then we’ll see.”
Full time: Wolves 1-2 Manchester City
Incredible VAR drama (Varma?) at Molineux, as John Stones heads a last-gasp winner … only for Stuart Attwell to send the referee over to the monitor. But after a quick look, Chris Kavanagh sticks with his onfield decision! You can unpick all that with Daniel Harris.
Reece James captains Chelsea in his first appearance since May; he slots in at right-back with Malo Gusto on the left, covering the suspended Marc Cucurella. Wesley Fofana is also out after getting a fifth booking, with Tosin Adarabioyo coming in, while Roméo Lavia replaces Enzo Fernández in midfield.
Three changes for Liverpool, with Andy Robertson back in place of Tsimikas, and Dominik Szoboszlai replacing Alexis Mac Allister. That could mean Curtis Jones moves back alongside Ryan Gravenberch in midfield. In goal, Caoimhin Kelleher replaces the injured Alisson.
As it stands, Liverpool will kick off the game top of the table – because after Arsenal lost at Bournemouth, Manchester City are labouring at Molineux, where it’s 1-1 with 15-odd minutes to play. Follow that one with Daniel Harris:
Team news
Liverpool (4-2-3-1): Kelleher; Alexander-Arnold, Konaté, Van Dijk, Robertson; Gravenberch, Jones; Szoboszlai, Salah, Gakpo; Diogo Jota.
Subs: Jaros, Gomez, Endo, Díaz, Núñez, Mac Allister, Tsimikas,
Quansah, Morton.
Chelsea (4-2-3-1): Sánchez; James, Adarabioyo, Colwill, Gusto; Lavia, Caicedo; Madueke, Palmer, Sancho; Jackson.
Subs: Bettinelli, Disasi, Badiashile, Pedro Neto, Fernández, João Félix, Nkunku, Dewsbury-Hall, Veiga.
Referee: John Brooks. VAR: Michael Oliver.
Preamble
Arne Slot and Enzo Maresca, two humble, softly-spoken, fashionably bald tracksuit managers, both stepped into pre-warmed seats in the Premier League at the start of this season. Slot arrived from Feyenoord with the unenviable task of replacing one of Liverpool’s greatest and most beloved managers; Maresca, on the other hand, took up a pew nobody much seemed to want, or have any hope of staying in for long.
For both new arrivals, the early signs have been positive. Liverpool have barely broken stride, winning six of their first seven league games while developing a more considered style under Slot. When Chelsea opted to ditch Mauricio Pochettino and bring Maresca in, they looked doomed to another reset – but the Italian has already assembled an exciting, youthful first XI who are outpacing early expectations.
Which brings us to today’s showdown at Anfield. This fixture brought little joy to the visitors in the Jürgen years. Seven different Chelsea coaches faced Klopp on his home turf in the league; the only one who got a win is now the England manager. Liverpool start as favourites, and a victory would cement their status as bona fide title contenders.
On the other hand, if Chelsea can rewrite recent history and win here, they would move a point behind Liverpool, suddenly back in the title race conversation themselves after years of turbulence. An intriguing contest awaits, kicking off at 4.30pm BST (yes, still BST). Let’s go!
